So, I’m back home after a couple of days down in DC. And man, what a great trip this was – fascinating, good running, and a chance to catch up with an old friend.

The new shoes are good – there’ll be a bit up on Complete Running later this week talking about a great retail experience.

And WOW – I’d forgotten what an elemental experience it is to run in good, solid humidity. I just got out for a couple of miles, and MAN – it was sticky. But sticky in a good way.

Monday night, I caught up with a shipmate. Good food, and we spent the evening walking around the Tidal Basin and the mall. DC is absolutely fabulous – it’s inspirational for me to actually go around and read the monuments, Jefferson’s in particular. It’s a shame how frequently we forget the intellectual underpinnings of our great nation. I envy you DC types, though not for the weather…

Thursday is Terramuggus. I hope i make it – work is busy, and next week is vacation…

This is big. Africa, I mean. Lots of natural resources, cheap labor, and essentially nothing existing on the ground. A veritable tabula rasa for building the 22nd century. Sure, there are problems to be solved…

Thursday night. I hadn’t done anything all week, not since running home from the Y on Sunday afternoon, and swimming Tuesday evening. Work was tough – go figure, since I’d been gone for two weeks. Nothing like playing catch up.

The kids were in bed. The wife was working. The evening air was heavy, ripe with the promise of rain. So, I stuffed the iPod in a plastic bag, laced up the Gel Cumulii once more, and set out.

As I headed up and over Cow Hill, there was a little bit of thunder in the air. I considered heading back (And, yes, I should have), but there was something there – a spring in the step that hadn’t been there for a while. So I pressed on, thinking I’d do the quick 5 mile loop on River Road and home.

As I approached the underpass for IH-95, the skies opened up in earnest. Rain fell, the breeze turned into wind, and the dry spaces beneath the trees started getting wet. I thought about resting under the bridge and waiting for the storm to pass, but instead I pressed on, taking High Street towards downtown.

At Star Street, again, I thought about turning back. I hung the left to head down to River Road, and the rain turned to a deluge. My shoes were completely soaked, my t-shirt clinging to me like, well, a wet t-shirt. At river Road, I decided to turn right and loop, in the rain, through downtown.

Downtown, the rain tapered, and then stopped completely. The air took on that brilliant shine that you can only get in the immediate aftermath of a thunderstorm. The thunder continued on out past Fisher’s Island, and the sunset began to break through the clouds.

The run on up River Road towards home was ephemeral, all fireflies and glassy water and unseasonably cool. The more I wished for the moment to stretch on into forever, the more the sun kept on past sunset, darkness rushing through the sky.

As I walked up the final hill towards the house, though, I got the letdown of not hearing Lance or Paula’s congratulations on a good run… And, the tightness in the calves, and the spent feeling inherent in pushing one’s limits.

I stuffed my soaked shoes with newspaper (one of them running tricks you read about but never try). THe next day – dry as bones, and good to go for 5K at lunch with Johnny Klink.

This is something I’ve been saying for a while. Much like we’ve developed super-bugs like drug-resistant TB, we’re growing common bacteria that aren’t affected by this stuff anymore. And, we’re compromising our own immune systems by not exercising them wi

Makes me want to go get the kids a bunsen burner and a bunch of glassware, just to see how long it takes them to blow up the garage. This stuff makes me mad – it’s done, in theory, to “make us safer”, but the long-term consequences are that we’re going to

Coming off of Terramuggus, I took Friday off. Saturday, I ran home from the Y after swimming lessons – 5-ish miles, and mostly good ones. I kind of pooped out on a couple of steep sections before I got home. And my Asics are betraying me – not sure if it’s a bad pair, or not enough miles on my part, but they’re consistently giving me blisters on the ball of my foot. Not good. There’s a new pair of shoes in the mail, but we’ll cross that bridge when they arrive.

Yesterday was my first day in the office in two weeks, so, naturally, it was a zoo. I skipped the lunch run in favor of socializing (Darn friends). Called the Y before leaving the office, and the pool is still open until 2130 – SCHWEET!

Supper, kids in bed, and off to the Y. Not crowded tonight, which was nice. And, after dealing with Fort. H’s evaporatively cooled pool, the Y’s pool finally felt warm-ish. Still gave me a tad bit of shrinkage when getting in, but not what I had remembered.

And the swimming was good – opened with 5xbreast, and then started swimming freestyle. The crawl just clicked, and the laps rolled by. I lost count somewhere between 5 and 10, and just kept swimming as long as the strokes were long, smooth, and strong. About lap 15 or so, I flubbed a flip turn in the shallow end, and figured that was as good of a breakpoint as anything. Finished up with 5 laps of both side rotary breathing (which still kills me – Even though I’m right-handed, whatever obscure muscle is used to give enough “oomph” to keep my mouth clear of the water while I’m breathing on the right side is underdeveloped after years of left-side breathing) and another 5 laps of free.

But for a couple of laps there – man, swimming was amazing. No world, just black tiles, bubbles, turn, suck air, and black tiles again.